NORTH KOREA | Japanese students now sing war songs in schools

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

North Korea, on Wednesday, accused Japan of aggression by reviving war songs in schools and passing a post-war record high defence budget for 2017.

Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said in a commentary that Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada had called on schools to revive the singing of “war songs” from World War II, apply the system of education in place before the war, and recite the “royal message of education” of former Japanese Emperor Hirohito.

“Meanwhile, the Japanese reactionaries passed 5.125 trillion yen (about 43.7 billion dollars) for its military spending for 2017 at the House of Councilors, an increase of 1.4 percent compared to last year.

“This shows that Japan’s military spending has steadily increased for five years,’’ it said.

The paper said the “Japanese reactionaries are staging a comeback to conquer Korea by way of retaliation for their defeat’’ and are turning their “self-defense forces’ into an elite armed forces in the world and Japan into a total militarist state and state for aggression.’’

“The ultra-rightist politicians’ steady visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and frantic efforts to distort history serve as base manure to instill the militarist idea in young people,” it said.

Japan forcibly annexed Korea in 1910 and enslaved Koreans during its brutal occupation and colonial rule of the peninsula until its defeat in 1945.